Joseph Pitton de Tournefort:"Relation D'Un Voyage au Levant" was first published, postumously, in Paris in 1717 [4to]; there was another edition published the same year in Lyons [8vo]. The following year, 1818 two more editions were published; in Amsterdam [in the original French] [4to], and in London, translated in to English [8vo]. In 1737 an edition was published in Dutch, in Amsterdam [4to], followed in 1741 by a second English edition. The last edition was published in German in 1776 [8vo]. The plates, after the sketches and paintings of Claude Aubriet, therefore appear in a number of formats depending upon the edition.

Joseph Pitton de Tournefort [ 1656-1708] was primarily a Botanist, he visited the Levant in the years 1700 -1702, at the command of Louis XIV; He was expressly commanded to go overland so that he could confirm the accuracy of the maps and reports the King was receiving from his ambassadors to the Caliphs of Alexandria & Constantinople. He was paticularly to observe the peoples, towns, cities, produce and manufacturing of the countries through which he travelled. Originally he was to travel through as far as Ethiopia via Eygypt, but he turned back early, on hearing reports of the Plague. He was accompanied on the Voyage by the artist Claude Aubriet.
Blackmer/Navari 1318[1st edition]. 105 by 164mm (4¼ by 6½ inches).
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